Men’s Basketball Notes and Quotes – Ohio State Buckeyes
11/10/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 10, 1999
Box Score%^$
%^$Quotes vs. Marathon Oil
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%^$Ohio State associate head coach Rick Boyages
%^$”I thought we had a good effort. We’re still trying to find out what we’ve got.”%^$
%^$”The reason why these guys are tough to play is they spread you out and they’re tough to guard. I thought we struggled offensively early, then we exploded. We’ll never have a problem scoring, but defense is what concerns us.”%^$
%^$(On playing exhibition games) “These games are good for us. It’s good to play older, veteran college players.”%^$
%^$(On Johnson’s foul trouble) “Losing Kenny in the game is probably the most disastrous thing that could happen to us because you can see he does things for us defensively.”%^$
%^$(On Coach O’Brien) “We’ve been together as a staff for nine years and he’s never missed a game before now.”%^$
%^$Scoonie Penn
%^$”We’re getting closer to the way we want to play. We still have five days to prepare for the regular season. We will be ready.”%^$”The preseason All-American award right now is all talk. It’s nice to earn to with those four other players, but I still have to go out and perform on the court every game.”%^$
%^$Cobe Ocokoljic%^$”When you go out and work hard in practice, you perform well on the court. Tonight I played hard and had fun. I am looking forward to playing Notre Dame in my first regular season game.”%^$
%^$George Reese
%^$”With the lineup we have, Cobe and I have more freedom to run with the offense. Teams are going to be focusing and Michael and Scoonie, so we have to come off the picks and help them.”%^$”We are looking to the Preseason NIT, but we have to come out and play every game and take each game at a time.”%^$
%^$Notes vs. Marathon Oil
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George Reese’s 19 points in the first half eclipsed his careerhigh of 14, set last season at Michigan State (1/27/99). Reesefinished the game with a game-high 21 points, as well as sixrebounds.%^$
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Ohio State held Marathon to just three points over the final3:44 of the first half, breaking the game open with a 17-3 run. Thefirst half was close until the run, with the two teams exchangingleads four times while tying five times.%^$
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Ohio State placed four players in double figures, paced byReese’s 21-point effort. Cobe Ocokojic (15), Michael Redd (14) andScoonie Penn (11) also broke into double figures for theBuckeyes.%^$
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Buckeye newcomers Cobe Ocokoljic and Brent Darby gave OSU a biglift off the bench. Ocokoljic tallied 15 points, going 2-for-3 frombehind the three-point line, while Darby hit for five points anddished out an assist.%^$
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The Buckeyes showed a tremendous improvement in free throwshooting, drilling 10 of 16 charity tosses (62.5%). OSU shot16-of-33 (48.5%) in the first exhibition contest vs. One World.%^$
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Four Buckeyes – Scoonie Penn, Brian Brown, Michael Redd andBoban Savovic – dished out four assists apiece. OSU totaled 20assists in the contest.%^$
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Michael Redd recorded a double-double in the contest, scoring14 points while snaring 10 boards – nine on the defensive end. Reddhas seven career regular season double-doubles, including four lastyear.%^$
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OSU drilled eight three-pointers in the game. The Buckeyesenter the regular season with a streak of 220 consecutive gameswith a made three-pointer.
